Current mail document inserting systems are designed to run at a single cycle speed that is fixed by the system design. Since the material and production characteristics of documents, inserts and envelopes, which together form a mail document, can effect the system performance, the cycle speed (rate at which the inserting system cycles, assuming no stoppage) must be set at a speed compatible with the most difficult mail document to process. This fixed cycle speed has been partially overcome by adding a manual cycle speed adjustment that the operator can set during a production job. However, the operator may not consider all of the parameters that could affect system performance for the job and only adjusts the manual setting based on the most difficult mail document in the production job. As a result, the optimal system cycle speed and resulting maximum throughput can not be achieved.
Hence a need exists for an inserting or wrapping system with dynamic speed control that tracks and monitors system performance and dynamically changes the inserting or wrapping systems cycle speed to maintain optimal performance. When material set sizes are large the system will reduce its speed to allow the sets to be completed and presented to the system's base track, and eliminate multiple cycling of empty track sections. The system will recognize and analyze system performance. As the mail processing system is running without faults over time it will increase its cycle speed in increments to achieve and maintain the most effective system performance. When the operational conditions are favorable the system will increase its cycle speed in increments until an optimal speed is reached. Likewise, if conditions are unfavorable the inserting system will decrease its cycle speed in increments until an optimal speed is reached.